10 Scientology Scientology hws featured on a previous list, but if I didn’t include it here, the comments would be inundated with “where’s Scientology?” questions. The Church of Scientology is a cult created by L Ron Hubbard (Elron) in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system called Dianetics. The Church of Scientology holds that at the higher levels of initiation (OT levels), mystical teachings are imparted that may be harmful to unprepared readers....

Launched in 2013, Vocativ is a news site that scours the deep web for compelling stories, and the result is some pretty amazing documentaries. Vocativ docs are bite-size chunks of info that tell some truly incredible tales, usually in less than 10 minutes. They’re short, concise, and totally eye-opening. 10Blood Rites: The Price Of Fame Everybody wants a shot at superstardom, but not everyone wants to make all the necessary sacrifices....

It sounds idyllic—a father turning his son into a character beloved by children around the world—but becoming a celebrity when he was just six years old wrecked Christopher Robin Milne’s life. The true story of the real Christopher Robin wasn’t a story of a whimsy, magic, and the joys of childhood. It was a dark, strange story, full of moments that’ll never show up in any Disney movie. 10 His Parents Dressed Him Up As A Girl The Milnes wanted a girl....

Many of these affiliations might be explained away with context. A prominent theme to the criminal aspects of Tupac’s life appears to be unruly cops and corrupt FBI informants. Still, many of these events are no longer referenced when the icon is discussed. 10 Joshua’s Dream Although the introduction to this list may have suggested that only the negative aspects of Tupac’s short life would be discussed, there are far more positive stories that are equally fascinating....

This was not the case in the 1930s. During the decade-long economic depression that affected most of the world, fascism, along with socialism, anarchism, and communism, became popular with two kinds of people—those who saw capitalism and democracy as alien systems forced upon them by the US and Great Britain and those who were disenfranchised with the status quo and sluggish economic recovery. Fascism, no matter what form it took, whether urbane and corporatist or volkisch, combined a hostility to both capitalism and communism with personality cults, grandiose displays of paramilitary (and later military) power and prowess, and a predilection for violence....

10Bucephalus In addition to being the greatest military conqueror of his time, Alexander the Great was apparently the world’s first horse whisperer, too. Legend has it that when Bucephalus was found, he could not be ridden by anybody. This included Alexander’s father, Phillip II of Macedon. Alexander deduced that Bucephalus had simply been scared by his own shadow, so he gently turned the black stallion’s head towards the Sun. Almost immediately, the wild beast was tamed....

But, contrary to popular belief, serial killers are not a new phenomenon. Like basic human evil, serial killers have been a part of our history since recorded time. Although they did not gain widespread visibility until the 19th century (when newspapers and other forms of media were able to sensationalize their malevolent deeds) every epoch has had its fair share of murderers. In this list, the focus will be on those serial killers who were active between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the birth of the modern nation-state....

More modern monsters often do not offer us the comfort of showing us how to defeat them. They can also be uncomfortably close to us—even in the United States. Here are 10 contemporary beasts and where to find them. 10 Mothman In 1966 in West Virginia, people began to report sightings of a terrifying human figure with wings. Soon dubbed “the Mothman,” this creature appeared to gravediggers, couples out walking, and other groups of people....

10 Roy Olmstead Roy Olmstead joined the Seattle police force nine years before Washington state went dry, so by the time he and his partners started busting bootleggers, he knew his way around the city. He also noticed something sad about all the busts they were making—they were sloppy, careless, and were missing so many obvious things that would make them much better at their chosen profession. It wasn’t long before he decided he could do much better and started running his own bootlegging business on the side....

10Birthplace Of The Sun Stars like our sun are born in clusters with other similar stars. These stellar siblings form from the same gas cloud, and so they have the same chemical composition. Yet we’ve examined 100,000 stars within 325 light-years of Earth and found only two that are a close match to the Sun. Our sun is alone, meaning it was either kicked out or drifted out of its cluster 4....

10 He’s Actually Crazy It could be argued that anyone going up against bullets, lasers, and death traps wearing nothing but spandex is at least a little crazy, powers or no powers. However, original Ant-Man Hank Pym is a genuinely unstable person in Marvel comics. It all started in his lab, where a distracted Hank Pym accidentally dropped vials containing different gases. Instead of getting blue fur or radioactive strength like in other Marvel comics, these gases gave Hank Pym a different superpower: schizophrenia....

10 AIC-CERT When Hurricane Katrina barreled into New Orleans in 2005, the storm claimed over 1,800 lives and caused $108 billion in damage. While a lot of that destruction involved private homes and businesses, the floodwaters also wiped out museums and libraries, damaging books, historical documents, and works of art. Hoping to preserve these priceless artifacts, the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) organized a team of volunteers to save as many records, paintings, and encyclopedias as possible....

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Most Famous Penises One scientist who was very interested in the penis was Sigmund Freud. However, Freud’s theories were so nuts that he would be considered a misogynist if he was alive today. He often belittled women and female sexuality, which ended up pitting him against female psychologists, who sometimes proposed weirder theories in return. 10 Penis Envy During the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud discussed what he called penis envy....

10 Flax-Spinning Prize If there was one man who understood that cold, hard cash is a powerful incentive, it was Napoleon. Throughout his reign, he promoted several contests to bolster France’s economy and reduce the country’s dependence on European imports. He awarded 12,000 francs to Nicolas Appert for developing a method of canning food that preserved it longer. Napoleon reserved his most substantial award for a flax-spinning machine. In 1810, he announced a prize of 1 million francs to the person who could devise a method of spinning yarn from flax fiber....

But just how many of the features of our imaginary portrait are native to France, and how many were imported? As this list will illustrate, many things you may associate with France did not, in fact, originate there. 10 The Mustache Not surprisingly, the mustache is an import. A cave painting, dated to 300 BC and portraying a Scythian warrior with a carefully groomed mustache, is often cited as the first evidence of the fashion....

A helpful tip: If an actual judge steps in and says “nope,” you may be just as irresponsible—not to mention weird—as the parents who tried to visit the following travesties on their kids. 10 Preacher And Cyanide In 2016, a Welsh single mother ended up in court after social workers became aware of an extremely poor choice she had recently made. The woman had twins, a boy and a girl, with three older half-siblings....

10 Henry Styles Bridges A Republican senator from New Hampshire from 1937 until his death in 1961, Henry Styles Bridges was an uncommonly ardent anticommunist and a steadfast defender of the more famous Joseph McCarthy. Bridges is one of the few to have voted against McCarthy’s censure in 1954. He also supported the “witch hunts” which took place during the second “Red Scare” as well as the persecution of gay civil servants during the so-called “lavender scare....

For instance, the BBC has elaborate plans on how it will report the death and burial of Queen Elizabeth II. This is even though the queen is still alive and well. It also suffered the first on-air hacking incident, once banned a song because listeners often clapped to its lyrics, and started playing pop music after a murder. 10 The BBC Rehearses The Queen’s Death Every Year Since the 1960s, the British government has maintained a plan code-named Operation London Bridge....

Reporters Without Borders claim that nearly half of the world lacks access to free information, and journalists across the globe still face intimidation, imprisonment, and death for daring to speak out. This is a list of ten journalists who paid the ultimate price for pursuing stories that some people did not want us to hear. 10Kim Wall Kim Wall was a freelance journalist who had reported from countries such as Haiti, Uganda, and Sri Lanka....